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CMS Made Simple 1.6
cnymike writes "CMS Made Simple 1.6: Beginner's Guide by Sofia Hauschildt, recently published by Packt Publishing, is intended for new users of the open source content management application, CMS Made Simple (CMSMS). True to its title, the book delivers in all respects and provides a solid foundation from which to grow as you explore the rich possibilities of building sites with CMS Made Simple. The author, Sofia Hauschildt, is a consultant, programmer, and tutor and has a gift for communicating in a straightforward, readable manner. The technical level of writing never exceeds that which could be easily understood by a neophyte. The book does assume that the reader has some knowledge of HTML and CSS." Read on for the rest of cnymike's review.
CMS Made Simple 1.6: Beginner's Guide
author
Sofia Hauschildt
pages
364
publisher
Packt Publishing
rating
9/10
reviewer
cnymike
ISBN
1847198201
summary
a practical, hands-on book based around a case study website
I was first introduced to CMS Made Simple five years ago. I had a need to begin the development of a CMS-based website, and over the years I have explored many products, including WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Website Baker, e107, and a slew of other open source applications. After trying many, I settled on CMS Made Simple to build many of the sites because of its ease of installation and operation.
The available documentation for CMSMS has been sparse however. The CMSMS web site has a wiki and user forum, but the wiki is not always up-to-date or complete. The user forum is an option for getting technical problems or other questions answered, but it is not the best place to ask questions if you are truly a neophyte. There is an expectation that you have a certain fundamental understanding of how CMSs work. The developers have clearly stated that CMS Made Simple is geared to web developers and not so much to neophytes who need a lot of hand-holding and who need relatively basic questions answered.
This book is the much-needed introduction to CMSMS. The approach taken by the author is exactly the approach needed if you were explaining how to use something to someone who has absolutely no knowledge of it. The learning takes place via the construction of a "case study" web site. You are taught how to install CMSMS and then how to plan your site, beginning with the creation of pages and navigation. The author even takes the time to explain how to customize TinyMCE (the WYSIWYG editor) to the level you need.
The methodology used in this book is straightforward and effective. As each topic is introduced, you are told what you will accomplish. Next, the instructions for accomplishing the task are given with ample use of screenshots when needed. As you work through the task, you are given additional tips and suggestions that help you fully appreciate what you are doing. Once the task has been completed, you are then given a summary of what just happened. Pop quizzes appear throughout the book to test your knowledge of what you were just taught. This type of repetition is one of the reasons the book is so effective. It super-charges the learning process. You learn by doing.
The author goes into surprising detail on many topics that give you a depth of understanding that you otherwise would not get by just trying to learn by yourself. For instance, in Chapter 4 — Design and Layout, the author discusses in a very concise manner how the Smarty template engine works. Various examples of how to harness the power of Smarty are given and before you know it, you've learned a great deal about Smarty that will greatly assist you in ultimately designing your own templates or modifying templates from other sources. Furthermore, an excellent section devoted on how to adapt templates from other platforms to CMSMS gives you the skills needed to accomplish that task. Having this knowledge opens the door to being able to adapt the huge number of templates , both paid and free, to your use on a CMSMS installation.
Core Modules are the essential modules that come with the CMSMS package. You learn about how these modules function and how to modify them in ways that let you adapt them to your specific needs. The author also discusses a number of third-party modules that give you additional features such as a photo Gallery or Newsletter.
Later in the book, more advanced topics are introduced. Some of the topics include how to make multi-lingual websites, how to translate core and third-party modules into a different language and how to create additional page layout capabilities by using extra page attributes.
Leaving no stone unturned, the book also discusses SEO practices, canonical URL's, how to avoid duplicate page content issues such as when you incorporate printer-only versions of your pages and much more. It is really surprising how much information is packed in to this relatively slim book.
There are many instances of code in the book that you need to type as you work through the exercises. Since there is no CD of these code snippets included with the book, the author has thoughtfully made available from the publisher website, a zip archive of the code.
To my knowledge, there currently is no other introduction to using CMS Made Simple. This book should quite frankly be required reading to anyone thinking of building a website with CMSMS. It will greatly accelerate your ability to successfully install, build and deploy a website based on CMSMS. The book is completely efficient in the way the information is presented and will give you a well-rounded perspective on using CMSMS. The book is designed with beginners in mind but even someone who has worked with CMSMS for a few years is likely to discover nuggets in this book that will be beneficial to them. The one thing this book is not, however, is a reference book. It is better to be used as a tutorial.
I have more computer books in my bookshelf than I care to count but this book is what I would consider a top-shelf book. It is easily digested, amazingly comprehensive and the only book you really need to get up and running with CMS Made Simple.
You can purchase CMS Made Simple 1.6: Beginner's Guide from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
The available documentation for CMSMS has been sparse however. The CMSMS web site has a wiki and user forum, but the wiki is not always up-to-date or complete. The user forum is an option for getting technical problems or other questions answered, but it is not the best place to ask questions if you are truly a neophyte. There is an expectation that you have a certain fundamental understanding of how CMSs work. The developers have clearly stated that CMS Made Simple is geared to web developers and not so much to neophytes who need a lot of hand-holding and who need relatively basic questions answered.
This book is the much-needed introduction to CMSMS. The approach taken by the author is exactly the approach needed if you were explaining how to use something to someone who has absolutely no knowledge of it. The learning takes place via the construction of a "case study" web site. You are taught how to install CMSMS and then how to plan your site, beginning with the creation of pages and navigation. The author even takes the time to explain how to customize TinyMCE (the WYSIWYG editor) to the level you need.
The methodology used in this book is straightforward and effective. As each topic is introduced, you are told what you will accomplish. Next, the instructions for accomplishing the task are given with ample use of screenshots when needed. As you work through the task, you are given additional tips and suggestions that help you fully appreciate what you are doing. Once the task has been completed, you are then given a summary of what just happened. Pop quizzes appear throughout the book to test your knowledge of what you were just taught. This type of repetition is one of the reasons the book is so effective. It super-charges the learning process. You learn by doing.
The author goes into surprising detail on many topics that give you a depth of understanding that you otherwise would not get by just trying to learn by yourself. For instance, in Chapter 4 — Design and Layout, the author discusses in a very concise manner how the Smarty template engine works. Various examples of how to harness the power of Smarty are given and before you know it, you've learned a great deal about Smarty that will greatly assist you in ultimately designing your own templates or modifying templates from other sources. Furthermore, an excellent section devoted on how to adapt templates from other platforms to CMSMS gives you the skills needed to accomplish that task. Having this knowledge opens the door to being able to adapt the huge number of templates , both paid and free, to your use on a CMSMS installation.
Core Modules are the essential modules that come with the CMSMS package. You learn about how these modules function and how to modify them in ways that let you adapt them to your specific needs. The author also discusses a number of third-party modules that give you additional features such as a photo Gallery or Newsletter.
Later in the book, more advanced topics are introduced. Some of the topics include how to make multi-lingual websites, how to translate core and third-party modules into a different language and how to create additional page layout capabilities by using extra page attributes.
Leaving no stone unturned, the book also discusses SEO practices, canonical URL's, how to avoid duplicate page content issues such as when you incorporate printer-only versions of your pages and much more. It is really surprising how much information is packed in to this relatively slim book.
There are many instances of code in the book that you need to type as you work through the exercises. Since there is no CD of these code snippets included with the book, the author has thoughtfully made available from the publisher website, a zip archive of the code.
To my knowledge, there currently is no other introduction to using CMS Made Simple. This book should quite frankly be required reading to anyone thinking of building a website with CMSMS. It will greatly accelerate your ability to successfully install, build and deploy a website based on CMSMS. The book is completely efficient in the way the information is presented and will give you a well-rounded perspective on using CMSMS. The book is designed with beginners in mind but even someone who has worked with CMSMS for a few years is likely to discover nuggets in this book that will be beneficial to them. The one thing this book is not, however, is a reference book. It is better to be used as a tutorial.
I have more computer books in my bookshelf than I care to count but this book is what I would consider a top-shelf book. It is easily digested, amazingly comprehensive and the only book you really need to get up and running with CMS Made Simple.
You can purchase CMS Made Simple 1.6: Beginner's Guide from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
For those interested it is at 1.7.1 right now http://dev.cmsmadesimple.org/project/files/6#package-1
RGdot.com
...if you need a book?
Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
I don't recall working with CMS on an IBM being all that difficult.
This reads to me like "download CMSMS and try it out" rather than a book review.
Only book printers and cocksuckers...
that someone made the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) simple. Or did the writer mean something else? He never did say.
Its rare that I'd want an anonymous coward modded up, but he/she has a point. Nowhere in this review does it say what the acronym CMS stands for. You can argue that this is a tech site and that CMS is a common acronym, or you can use google - but its a piss poor review that assumes that you know what they are reviewing or makes you do extra work to find out what they are reviewing.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
The ultimate tool in allowing customers screw up their websites at a press of a button ...
Concrete5 is great CMS for developers and end-users. It doesn't follow the standard portal design that most copy-cat content management systems have where you need to login to a dashboard and edit pages "behind the scenes". End-users navigate through their actual site editing pages as needed in a simple point-click, drag-drop interface. Your clients will be stunned by how easy it is to use. Check it out here: http://bit.ly/concrete5cms
Well, the problem is it isn't clear. It does talk about an Open Content Management System (CMS) and the book is about CMS (Content Management System) Made Simple (CMSMS). And the rest of the review talks about CMSMS (Content Management System Made Simple).
So it could be clearer with some parenthesis :)
[John]
Shit better not happen!
I had to work with that CMS and its the worst CMS. From a security point of view they got it all wrong and the php code doesn't respect any coding standard or standard practice like design pattern.
Concrete5 or Silver stripe are 2 good CMS and the have version traking built-in to prevent you user to do the irreparable.
Seriously, a "neophyte" knows CSS?
Why didn't she just write it in Klingon. "A Neophyte can understand this... if they know Klingon."
E
Creative Music System.
I had to work with that CMS and its the worst CMS.
Oh, no, you haven't seen the worst until you've had to rescue someone from a proprietary CMS which was designed primarily to create vendor lock-in. And then the vendor goes away. And then they used a PHP obfuscator. And some kind of in-memory symbol breaker.
Anybody here used Magnolia? I was looking at it for a family member's small business.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
From the programmer's point of view?
We have been using CMS Made Simple exclusively for five years now. Pretty simple to administer and use for professional site developers (i.e. knows xHTML/CSS, knows their way around their server or hosting account, and can at least handle some simple PHP coding), but it's NOT for the brain-dead masses.
__
On a side note.. It is refreshing to see something about a CMS package posted here other than Yet Another WordPress|Joomla Security Vulnerability.
You raise a valid point. Nowhere in my review did I specify that the acronym CMS stands for Content Management System. That was my oversight. I assumed that the acronym "CMS" would be recognized for what it stood for by readers of Slashdot. If I submit again in the future, I won't make that assumption.
The CMS (Content Management System) is called CMS Made Simple (CMSMS). The book is titled, "CMS Made Simple 1.6: Beginner's Guide."
Until the present moment I didn't still find a book of CM to explain the techniques of SEO in this platform type with depth. ___ Reinaldo Silva http://www.otimizacaodesites.org/ Brazil
There are some really simple CMSs, compared to those this CMS looks really complicated... but simplicity standards in software are rather low this days :(
"When in doubt, use brute force." Ken Thompson